Despite being delayed six times so far, Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot is highly confident in Skull and Bones, so much so that he is tempting fate, invoking the dreaded "AAAA" moniker. The last developer we can recall doing that was the ill-fated Striking Distance Studios with The Callisto Protocol, a game with a sad ending.
Guillemot made the comment during a Q&A session conference call (thanks, VGC), discussing the company's Q3 sales for its fiscal year 2024. One knowledgeable caller suggested that Skull and Bones appeared to be following a live-service format (recently revealing a Year 1 Roadmap) and asked why Ubisoft insisted on charging $70 when a free-to-play model might be better suited.
Guillemot asserted that the scale, complete nature, and level of polish and quality deserved a $70 pricetag, which might be the most hubris we've seen from a CEO recently. He proudly proclaimed: "You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game. It's a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It's a really full, triple… quadruple-A game that will deliver in the long run."
It remains to be seen how Skull and Bones performs in these uncharted waters, but an open beta is running this weekend, ahead of the game's full launch next week, on 16th February on PS5. Either way, we won't have much longer to wait to learn the veracity of Guillemot's claim.